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Perhaps you are wondering why I haven’t mentioned socks or knitting in the last couple of days?

The suitcase got unpacked the day we arrived home and I started some laundry. Opening up my backpack, the computer came out and was plugged in. Last night I thought about knitting, but was just too tired.

After surviving Physical Therapy and a few hours at PM, I came home and thought about taking some photos. Like the Spiral Socks from from Sockmania that I knit on the trip and the newly started Ganseys from 6SKAL.

My Spirals are among the missing. So are the Love my Gansey’s.

I had finished up the Spirals on the plane Saturday night/Sunday morning and started the Ganseys. I had listened to my small MP3 player till it ran out of juice. Since the plane was full – it was too much of a pain to get out my computer in an attempt to charge it up. It is slow to charge under the best of circumstances and being in a middle seat….

Having gone through my backpack twice, then a third time I am about to panic. The Slugs (age under 20 and still on vacation even tho their Dad and I are making clean-up noises) deny any and all knowledge of me and my hobbies. They have no clue what one ball of yarn looks like compared to another. Unless it is something for them. Or a scarf. Then they notice and have opinions.

This is not yarn -my dears. It a half a sock, a pair of socks and an MP3 player.

No joy on finding a phone number for China Air that even closely resembles a lost and found.

Work is not thrilling, but after tomorrow I am taking another couple of days leave.

Otherwise, it is laundry and housecleaning. We are full of tile and plaster dust from the renovation.

Not knitting and desperately looking for the library books which are now overdue.

It wasn’t when I stopped at the mailroom hoping to be able to pick up all of our held mail – and the window was open. It wasn’t when I drove through the HMEDDAC Caserne and saw very few cars in the parking lots. It was when my cell phone rang and I pulled over to answer it.

Then I called work because I was running late only to find out that it was a training holiday. Well – DUH! No wonder the mailroom window was open; they do that from 0800-1200 on training holidays. Plus this was the obvious explanation for both the lack of vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the Caserne; all the clinics were closed.

Turning around, I drove back to the Caserne and used a computer in the PM Building for the next several hours in order to get caught up. By the time that 258 emails turned into 152 to be filed and most of the rest in the trash and I had seen a number of patients it was 1530. Heading back over to the mailroom to find it dark, the other shoe dropped.

I knew this. On training holidays the mailroom is open in the morning; a time that it is normally closed. Then it closes for the rest of the day. Period. There are no afternoon hours. I had stayed to 1530 on a day off – the day after returning from China because?

Packing my slow brain into the car I drove home, making it as far as the terrace with my packages before the temptation became too great.

We did the bus to the Fast Train – a China Air flight to Beijing, then caught a connecting flight to Frankfurt. We will skip the discussion of collecting luggage, traipsing through from one terminal to another to finally find the gate.

We managed Frankfurt, a jam packed train and shoe-horned ourselves into taxi to home.

This is our last full day in Shanghai. The tour group schedule included a Buddhist Temple and a garden.

We looked at each other. Right—-not. We have seen a number of extremely well restored temples and more than a couple well preserved gardens. What we have not seen is much of any of the cities themselves. Politely bowing out, we headed down Nanjing Road toward the Harbor figuring that we would hike wherever and take a cab back at the end of the day if we were too tired. Something about the tour’s luncheon plans including Mongolian Barbecue just made the decision easier.

Shanghai is a city of skyscrapers –

Which became even more obvious after visiting the World Expo Planning Building (2010 is in Shanghai).

and looking at the amazing and detailed scale model of the center of the city. Please remember that Shanghai at preset is thought to be somewhere around 17 million people.

The model as you can see is the size of a rather large room complete with a number of the buildings that light up as the model cycles through its night phase.

We also saw the Museum in the daylight, across the harbour to the TV tower and the memorial.

As well as the bustling pedestrian zone.

As many no longer remember, Shanghai was one of the few places at the start of WWII that required no visa for immigration. Prior to the Japanese conquering the region, the city of Shanghai became home to over 20,000 Jews who escaped Germany and Eastern Europe fleeing there by sea, rail and over land to safety. After the war, most of the Jewish population left as life became untenable under the Maoist regime.

I would hazard it is because of the tourist trade that the Ohel Moshe Synagogue is getting renovated.

The building itself will not be open until sometime this fall.

The teens were sure that we had hiked 20 or so km. I think it was more like 12. Even so, I did not mind the cab back to the hotel. At a price of 25Yuan (about 2,5€) it seemed like a reasonable bargain.

located between Suzhou and Shanghai seeing the restored water town with its boats, canals, fishing birds

as well as the historic Governor’s House with its Formal Rooms and Gardens with fish

We headed to Shanghai.

I will not bore you with more pictures of tables full of Chinese Food. It is safe to assume that we were served food. Still too westernized for my sake, but fine for just about anyone but my teens who are voting for a “donner.”

Noah took the evening harbour tour with us. The city lights up most of its downtown (well, along the waterfront plus just about everywhere else) buildings at night. Best seen from the water, it is a rather amazing sight. Waterfront to War Memorial

On the way back to the hotel – we stopped quickly at the pedestrian zone. Not just a few lights or people at close to 2200.

And at one of the main Museums.

Arches

With the Hilton providing the evening arch lit as bright as day while in contrast there was an old pedestrian bridge in Tongli.

Come to think of it – I should be putting in Province names along with the country. My history and geography sense is getting better, but it is still not great. There is a decent book on Chinese history that I will pick up at the airport on the way out. Generally, we are book buyers on trips. Excellent things to have – but can become an issue with weight after a while.

As you probably guessed – there is a day trip every day – sometimes more than one. Be warned. There are a lot of pictures in this post. If it gets to be too much – I may split it in two.

First up – gardens. Apparently the city of Suzhou is known for its gardens. Well known to the Chinese and full of tourists – so that the rest of us now know as well. I am finding the biggest challenge being to get photos that are not completely full of strangers.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden – full of small pagodas – winding paths (paved) and loaded with tourists of all flavors.

And if you are hungry –

You can buy the lotus roots to eat.

With the occasional peaceful corner, the kids and I just sat along one of the canals in the garden and waited out the rest of the group.

As it turns out, Suzhou is a city of canals –

With the river still showing the effects of all the rain and flooding. You can see the kind of broad, flat bottomed boat on which we rode.

But now we get to the highlight of my day – Suzhou #1 Silk Mill.

After a short discussion of the (very) short life of the silk worm –

We walked through an open production area – first seeing the very young worms much their way through chopped up mulberry leaves.

Eventually spinning themselves into cocoons

Which are then sorted and graded

Before being cooked (skipping the pictures of buckets of boiled cocoons and going directly to the reeling process where the cocoons in groups of eight are reeled together while continuing to float. in water troughs below the reels.

Then the smaller reels are combined to make the thread – that is an end number of 40 cocoons reeled to make one fine thread.

If the moth “wins” – surviving to eat its way out –or if two larvae do their thing together – which results in a mass that cannot be unreeled – you wind up with silk caps.

And here they are turned into silk comforters. Yes, the stuffing portion made of layers of hand stretched out silk caps and placed one on top of the other.

.

I took a side detour to look at the four lovely jacquard looms.

Would you want to work here for a base salary of around 100€/month?

But was not really interested in much in their showroom, I really could not see the point in a silk comforter. As it turned out, that was just the first of multiple sales rooms. The good thing was that I had almost no money and not a credit card with me. That might have been the bad thing as well. There was wonderful silk fabric as well as scarves and clothing. I did find some silk embroidery threads – but no silk caps for sale. George tried asking, and the sales people could not understand why anyone would want to buy cocoons or silk caps. A couple of small bags became my souvenirs.

Sadly, we left well before I was looked out.

The last stop of the day was the Master of Nets Garden. No waterways –no lotus blossoms, just intriguing natural stone to contemplate and wonderful wooden buildings with fascinating carvings.

Since the tour is full pension – I probably don’t have to tell you that we had the usual number of meals today.

And in case you are wondering where on earth is the knitting content – socks on the bus!

With grace and style – we packed up this morning, and were on our way to see the new Three Gorges Dam. I have already mentioned that there is significant human as well as environmental impact from the project. It is not just the relocation of 1,3M people – two significant cities and a good dozen other communities. Or the industries that will have to be built somewhere else – I also wonder about the contamination effect on the river of all the industrial buildings and coal mining areas that are going to wind up underwater. The upside is the generation of significant more power by hydroelectric, decreasing the amount of coal consumed. Try breathing the air here and you will understand why this is not a small point.

Did I mention that I forgot to turn my camera off last night? End result was dead batteries – so you are spared pictures of the dam under construction. They are in Phase 3/3.

I managed to get my battery recharged upon our return. The suitcases were already gone and we had turned in the room keys. On arrival at Yichang, we loaded on to our bus and set off –

lunch and airport on the agenda.

More tourists – most seemed to be tourist travelers and the airport was reminiscent of Frankfurt-Hahn with the whole day’s flights posted on the board, one counter per flight and a cattle car push to board. At least there were seat reservations.

After landing in Shanghai – we traveled by bus to Suzhou. I like the Holiday Inn. Clean rooms that don’t rock under your feet – tub along with the shower and a chance to do some laundry. Of course – I am not completely sure as to why there is a window in the bathroom that looks over the rest of the hotel room. Since there are lattice blinds – you can chose to have privacy.

Internet. Internet is also important. Even if Blogger, our travel firm, and Typepad are blocked. It tells me that the censorship is not gone – even if this area is much more westernized, even when CNN can be found on the television.

There is no question for me – I can sleep much better on a ship than on a train. I am not sure about the kids – it just seemed better not to ask. The beds are “firm.” Perhaps better to say hard as rocks, but there were no stops and starts all night with train cars coming and going.

Today was the planned traverse of the Three Gorges – reputed to be one of the most scenic areas of the river.

I don’t mind being up to see the sun –

And the canyon walls rising along side the ship prior to 0800 in the morning. The upper passenger lounge had coffee from 0630 on.

With range after range of mountains in the distance – the first gorge took only 20 minutes to traverse.

Noah elected to join the adults on the side trip this morning.

In the area of Daning – the smaller gorges are know for their strange stone formations. This area will change drastically after the new dam goes in downstream and the level of the water is raised to 175 meters. This whole project is not without significant detractors. 17 years under development – perhaps the most difficult part is the forced resettlement of what is turning out to be 1,3M people; most of whom were not exactly anxious to be moved.

But back to the mountain faces –

And the wild monkeys – which were spotted only on the way back from the 60+ km upstream jaunt.

I think that much of the traditional way of life will be irreparably changed. Not that the massive change into the industrial revolution over the last 10 years has not done its damage – but I wonder about the farmers and the fishermen – those who do not wish to leave their current locations and lives.

In the after noon – we went through what is known as the Hexen (woops – Witches Gorge) or Goddess Gorge – depending on which translation you read.

With the small figure in the middle as the goddess who came to earth. Not that small, about 7 meters tall.

Evening entertainment – Going through the locks.

Followed by the talent show.

– Holly
And, just to prove the point that I can occasionally come out from behind the camera!

It was well after dark last night when we arrived on the MS Sunshine. No clue about the name or why – or even if it is a translation of something else.

Originally built in 1994 – allegedly the ship underwent a complete renovation in 2003; could not have told it by the passenger rooms. Even so, you really don’t want to know about the appalling conditions in which the crew (who I would swear were all 18 and younger) lived.

Leaving the port –

You could still see signs of the recent flooding and high water marks along the river.

The morning we cruised down the river – watching the contrast between industry, agriculture, old methods and new.

The girls and I took the afternoon trip up to the Ghost Temple –

Passing through the gates, but deciding to go up by chair lift, since the idea of hiking up 400+ steps in 39°C was not really appealing.

As has happened in each section of this trip – we have our regular tour guide plus someone who is relatively local. I started zoning out rather early in the lecture this time – preferring to wander around and take a few photos –

Heading back down the mountain – I missed the trip to the underworld and more Buddha statues.

But looking down –

I was easily reminded of the population density and how much has been built new in the last 10-15 years.

And yes – the water is actually that brown looking from up closer.

While the ship looked better from afar!

For ships entertainment in the evening – the choices were a fashion show from the crew –

Or stalking the tourist in the wild. Or perhaps it was them stalking us. In either case – tourists and locals are two different speices.

It is not just the Americans – in fact we have seen very few Americans – it is all the tourists. So far we have counted French, Spanish, German, UK, Japanese, Korean and a few Australians sprinkled among the hundreds upon hundreds of Chinese.

You could even talk about being stalked – certainly that is true at the various tourist stops. Overwhelmed by those trying to peddle their goods. Other than that – there is little to no interaction between any one who lives and works in China and the tourists – unless one’s job is in the tourist industry. Those places we go and the people we meet – feels much like going to Russia.

Enough said. I could easily do without several of the tourist groups.

We started the day at the Stone Forest Temple/Museum

Which has over 200 stone tablets from Confucius times to the present, representing a wide variety of calligraphy as the texts were carved over the centuries.

With contributions from modern artists.

Our humour for the day –

Which I supposed you could sit at after making use of the collection of ancient hitching posts.

Besides the tablets – the ancient bell no longer rings.

From there – we went to the top of the Xi’an old city wall.

Looking out over the city – there is continual contrast between the old and the new. Pagodas, neon signs, hand carts and buses.

The high point of the top of the wall was the Chinese version of a tea ceremony.

From there, we were on our way to the airport. The original plan was to go to Chongqing.

Weather that was less than pleasant with a fair amount of turbulence resulted in our flight being diverted to a completely different city. After an hour on the ground, we took off and tried it again. The final view prior to landing? You would never know that there had been a storm.

Stumbling from plane to bus to ship – the whole crew was pretty exhausted.

The Wild Geese Temple was well known outside China as a significant place for Japanese and Korean Buddhists to study. Under the Revolution, it was not relevant to China. One of the many places that has been rebuilt under the new openness policy, there are few sections that are old, and most construction is within the last couple of years. The large pagoda is home to a significant library collection.

From there, it was to a workshop that hand carved Jade (just about all Jade is Handcarved) and also “produced” handwoven silk tapestries.

The size of the showroom was amazing – but the prize winner – among all the exquisite items were the garden gnomes.

Passing the old city wall again after lunch – we were on our way to the Emperor’s Terracotta Army.

Discovered by a farmer trying to dig a well in 1974 – it is one of the major archaeological finds of the last and this century. Originally not as well controlled as one would like, the digging has settled into a routine headed by a team of 20 archaeologists and serves as a training ground in China for the discipline. The digs are covered by three enormous buildings, the largest more than a football stadium in size.

Leaving there – it had been a long day and just watching the traffic on the way home –

We have been collecting various signs along the trip. The kids found what is likely to be my favorite stenciled on a passing bus window. And perhaps yours as well, considering the only other sign on the side of the bus was a “no talking to the driver.”

There were two restaurants in the hotel in which we stayed last night. The one on the first floor was labeled “Western Restaurant” while the one on the second was labeled “Chinese Restaurant.”

We ate upstairs. This was fine with me. I have no problems with rice soup and tasty veggies for breakfast. There were a number of others in the group who might have preferred a more familiar variety of dishes from which to choose.

With multiple dashes through the pouring rain, we made the train station with barely enough time to spare only to find that the train was late. Apparently a serious train accident elsewhere was affecting the rail service timeliness in the province. Straight faced, someone in the group quipped that this was completely unusual – “after all, the Deutschebahn is never late.” At which point we all howled with laughter. Bahn timeliness is a thing of the past with the new privatization. The delay turned out to be less than an hour, hardly anything of concern.

Orderly mass confusion on boarding the train, there are an incredible number of people boarding. Our luggage was being delivered directly to the baggage car. Others were trying to haul huge suitcases through narrow isles. After an initial seat shuffle, we found we were on the upper tier of Wagon 5 with a great view of the passing scenery.

The train ride was over five hours of some of the greatest variety and remarkable scenery I have seen. New and old industry buildings competing with wild looking mountainsides while terracing was present anywhere it seemed possible to grow anything. Falling down shacks with barely three walls while the air varied from filthy to almost clear.

It seemed we all napped or read. The Chinese families traveling in the same wagon all seemed to take their lunch break by hauling out various bowls of noodles, getting hot water from a fixture at the end of the car.

After transferring to the hotel in Xi’an and having a break, we met for dinner – the specialty of small dumplings. These are not Dim Sum, rather small shaped dough filled creations that each have a name, meaning and history.

Electing to take the evening out and about – we walked through a downtown old city shopping area admiring all the street food and dried fruit, but did not try anything.

In another area of the city we stopped to see a water and light show. The plaza had just been finished for less than than two years.

And finally, near one of the city gates there is open air folk dancing and drumming every evening.

It was after 2230 when we arrived back at the hotel. Tomorrow does not start till 0900 for which I am glad.

Socks

I have finally made progress on the Solstice Slip. It is not hard, I have just been too tired, or too busy watching out the window to knit. Although the pattern is easy, one in four or so rows involves cabling. I have to pay attention. And of course, I needed to change the heel, cabling mandatory!

Arches

This is a country of arches, a lot of potential for future weeks when I have returned home. From the lake at the Summer Palace.

Solstice Slip road better on the train than I did, ready and anxious to disembark for new adventures. Probably got a lot more sleep as well! We arrived in Louyang shortly before seven and had the delightful experience of going from the train station to breakfast to the tour bus.

Did you notice a hotel or shower anywhere in that list? The humidity again is close to or above 100% (water dripping off things and people). Some of us had at least taken fresh clothes out to change. There were others in day old clothes. A/C on the bus helped.

This is Hunan Province, one of the poorer provinces, visibly so than Peking: at least from the cracked walls in the train station and pieces chipping off the platforms. Crumbling buildings along the station street were side by side with newer structures. This is a city of only a million people. We will not even talk about the condition of our tour bus—it has seen better days. It is probably a contemporary of Nina. Ripped seats, absent seat controls and leg space not designed for Long-Noses (Westerners).

On the way to Shaolin Cloister (and one of the five holy mountains – completely obscured by whatever is in the air) we all grogged out, exhausted from the train ride and missed most of the inevitable lecture. What I remember clearly is that the Cloister has watched over the area for hundreds upon hundreds of years, protecting the area from bandits. At some point the various fighting styles evolved. This is now the national center for Kung Foo and is one of the highest, if not the highest ranking school in the world.

We walked through part of the grounds, seeing dozens of student groups practicing before entering a seating arena to watch a demonstration. The sign that said “NO PHOTOS!” just was not understood by those who spoke neither Chinese or English (consider a German tour group in that category since all the Japanese and most of the Chinese were flashing away): my pictures are not great, but I got a couple of decent shots. Having an SLR digital camera is great—especially on manual mode. Audience Participation, the moves are not as easy as they seem.

There were the historical Pagodas-

After more meandering and seeing of buildings, we were returned to our tour bus to drive to The White Horse Temple. It was at this point that my camera quit functioning. Going, almost, but not quite completely nuts – it seems like the humidity is a bad combination with the battery, letting it run down rather quickly. I had taken no where near the number of photos as the day before. But this still left me in a panic if my estimation that it was just a run down battery was not correct.

The Temple is a collection of multiple inner buildings, all of which have the Budda in various guises and repose. The oldest statue was brought from India over 2000 years ago. The teens seemed to enjoy hearing some of the history. George and I found a small gift shop off to the side – no, we did not need incense rather a book on the temple. When you can’t take your own pictures, settling for someone else’s also works.

A bus ride to lunch – yet another round table. Oh! I haven’t mentioned that. I thought it was understood. There are 15 in our tour group – this breaks out to 8 at one table and 7 at the other. Usually it is a brave couple of our age from Landshut that joins the five of us. In the center of each table is a turntable on which all the dishes are placed. It works well, as long as people are polite and see who is in the process of dishing up food prior to spinning the wheel.

The final stop today was the Longmen Grottos. There is a young woman in the group who is taking almost as many photos as I. Her camera was doing fine and I am going to hit her up for pictures. This place matters. Along the Yi River, first in natural caves, then in ones carved out directly from the bluff face are dozens and dozens of statues. The largest caves are over two stories tall, some of the smaller, less than the length of a hand. Apparently during the Tang Dynasty and again during one other early period there were issues with robbers.

That destruction is nothing compared to what happened between 1907-1949 when Westerner’s helped themselves to over 400 of the most important statues. A good many of them can still be seen in the British Museum and more than one wound up in private collections. One plaque commemorates the 400 (yes – four hundred) missing Buddas. I am sure that this is one of the items still under political discussion between China and any country which is now home to those particular statues.

Today there are stainless steel stairs and railings bolted to the rock face so that tourists can come and see this wonder of the world. The river flows slowly by, so thick with silt and pollution that you can not see down more than a few centimeters. Visible high on the facing side are a few grottos, but those are noted empty by sign on this side of the river. In the middle, a rose and yellow painted cement Lotus Blossom seemingly floats serenely.

By this time, all of us were seriously wiped out. Without much sleep the night before, no time to wash or change clothes –we all were voting for the hotel. But first we had dinner. Please assume that the majority, if not all those we saw at dinner were tourists. I really don’t think that the groups mix much. Both from political design and the fact that where they take us would just not be affordable for the vast majority of Chinese.

The restaurant was on the 25th floor of a tower and rotated, slowly perhaps, but definitely. Over the course of our dinner we traveled from North to East. With a steady center core, the seating area circled this, with an outer window area that moved separately from the seating area. Tonite was Buffet. Noah was more than happy – he hit the grill area followed by a goodly number of the steam table dishes.

I had a great time. Not everything had an English name associated with it. What I found was that either those were the more interesting dishes or those with a lot of spice. I skipped the cuttle fish, and anything I could not completely identify. But I did find wonderful things to eat. There were spicy salads, veggies, tofu, onion small pancakes, mushrooms of various kinds and soybeans steamed in the pods. The ubiquitous watermelon along with cantaloupe was a better choice for desert than the local ice cream.

Full and exhausted, we went to the hotel. This is the first place that had no “trundle or other extra beds” so Noah actually got a room to himself. A side effect of the single child family in action –the idea of needing more than two adults in a room just is not even a concept.

The only internet availability was for pay, and neither of us decided it was worth it.

Right now it is insane – the fifteen people from our group plus the tour guide are jammed into four compartments, Carriage number 11, on train K611 from Beijing nach – I don’t know or care. I am tired and it is 2230 in the evening.

I am the wet blanket, sitting quietly on a lower bunk, ignoring the party out in the corridor. They have alcohol. I have a killer of a headache. They seem to be having a great time. Me?

Whine mode off.

This morning was fine – we packed ourselves out of the hotel and onto the bus after an excellent breakfast.

I am knitting while we are under way on the bus – between attempting to take pictures out the window. Our tour guide does not know the meaning of quiet, so it was left George to uphold the family honor and play a couple of memory games while under way. The kids were sleeping or reading.

Our first stop on the way was “the Ming Gardens with 435 steps up to the highest pavilion. After yesterday, this was child’s play. We hiked rapidly up, I took a ton of pictures with both the regular lens and my new 55-200 mm lens. There were plants, we have pictures of those was well.

I did not succeed in getting the small birds – they were just too fast. The high point on the mountain over looked the Imperial Palace. And an amazing number of tiled roof tops are involved.

From there, we went to the Institute Medical Plant Development, which is part of their Chinese Medical Institute. They specialize in traditional medicine and botanical preparations. We saw a small part of the main of their four gardens, then experiences a foot/leg massage. The students who came and treated the group are so young. I really think that none of them were older than our Nina. A traditional doctor also did pulse diagnosis on everyone and they offered a variety of medicines based on the diagnosis. We skipped purchasing anything. Making it 1430 by the time we arrived at lunch, starving all of us.

From there, we traveled to the Summer Palace; first walking around a section of the grounds after taking a dragon boat across the Kumning Lake. The lake was built in order for the Emperor of the time to plan and practice an invasion. Nice military bit, but nothing left for war machinery, only a decorative marble Dragon Boat.

The last stop before dinner was along one of the Ring Roads – either 4 or 5 where you could see the new Olympic Stadium. Designed and executed by a Swiss firm, it is called The Bird’s Nest. The reason for the name is fairly obvious.

Dinner was at a multiple star restaurant. I can’t tell, the food is all the same to me (vegetable, another vegetable, scrambled egg with tomato and rice). This area of China does bland food. There seems to be a fair number of pork dishes on the non-edible list.

Boarding the tour bus, we headed to the train station, hauling our bags through the security point (fastest scanner in the world – I am willing to bet it would have to be pretty big and obvious before they would see it. OTOH, you could just keep your weapons on you, since they don’t check the people, just the luggage. Perhaps to make sure no one is riding for free).

Couple of other specious comments, and information points for you:

1) Toilets. They are otherwise known as the Hall of Harmony. They are rated from 1 to 7 stars. One is an outdoor hole or slit trench. Two would also be outside, but have an enclosure with doors. Three is the same, inside a fixed building. Four has stalls inside the fixed building. It is not till five that you get running water. That means flushing and handwashing. With six and seven – well – hell – six gives you your choice of western or foot pad (but ceramic) toilets and even has toiler paper (till it runs out). At seven – you have western style toilets, running water, soap, a blow dryer plus attendant who has high expectations of Yuan.

2). Censorship is alive and well in China. When we arrived in Beijing there was a printed apology stating that there was not availability of TV between midnight and 0630 (the day we arrived and for the next two nights), due to bad weather. I didn’t think much about it until George was on line reading newspapers (Frankfurt and München), spotting the front page criticism of China and human rights in regards to the Olympics. Now, how gullible are we? That convenient weather problem means that prime time in Europe can’t be seen in China, since that corresponds to the six hour time difference. Guess we won’t be watching CNN, BBC etc. At least the English language is accounted for. Can’t block everything, which is why George was reading the German papers.

Up front – there is little to no knitting content. I am working my way down the heel of the first Solstice Slip. Picuture not provided.

Instead – this is travel. And picture heavy – you have been warned.

A mixture of rain and blue sky by late afternoon. It is amazing how much cleaner the air manages to be when you get farther out – but it is still not fun. Better on the mountains – and at least you could see mountains!

Our bus left the hotel at 0800 this morning, bound for the Ming Tombs. Breakfast was either Chinese or Western – or more than one of the above, your choice.

On the way – we had our first real tourist sales pitch experience. A bathroom break was scheduled – just happened to be at a pearl store. Watching a short film, then seeing someone demonstrate how you crank open an oyster to remove the pearls did not make everyone in my family happy and may have put at least one daughter permanently off pearls. Stones are one thing, but killing the oyster was not thrilling.

The Ming Tombs – both the buildings and the Sacred Way carved marble creatures were wonderful. Well worth the mild rain. Uploading from here took forever.

From there we got an even bigger taste of the tourist industry – stopping at a Chinese version of enameled ware factory – complete with restaurant – and chance to see the amount of handwork that goes into the process.

Of course, there was a chance to go shopping.

And then there was the Great Wall – the section at Juyongguan travels up 1000 meters. It does this in a series of steps, switch overs and extremely steep climbs. Every time you came around a corner, figuring you were done, there was yet another set of stairs in front of you.

We went all the way up. As it turns out, perhaps we should have gone up the other wall, a bit farther a distance, but a much shallower climb.

An arrival at 0615 local time saw us all on our feet – more or less. We even found the tour people, the hotel was willing to let us check in early. I took no pictures of the approach, not worth doing. Keep going and you will see why

Showers are so nice after an overnight on a plane. A couple of hours later, we were on the road, mini bus and travel group together to see some must see tourist sites in Beijing.

I will slide right by the air quality which is way above smog and rapidly approaching pea soup. It is even worse than Seoul as we could not see the runway until we were practically over it. The ceiling seems to be well under 500 feet and visibility well less than a kilometer.

And this was supposed to be a good day.

There are 15 of us in this tour group – the five of us, one mother-adult daughter combination and four couples. My teens are the only ones under 30. No surprise.

While all of you have read about the impact of the single child family on China – there is some fall out that I would not have expected. Other than twins – children here have cousins or friends, but not siblings. Blond is not a normal colour. So there you have it – three blonds together, obviously siblings – the crew ran out of niceness when the x many stranger came up to them and wanted either a picture of the three of them, or a picture taken with them.

Sense of humour long gone, and tolerance absent, I think that they all understand now why I am really impressed by anyone who makes it in a less than 1% minority status. Also why I don’t like traveling to Jamaica (but here it also have to do with the distribution of wealth by those who live there.

But the Forbidden City, Imperial Palace etc were impressive. I took pictures, lots of pictures. Mostly of architectural details but still. It was extremely difficult to get pictures that were not stuffed full of strangers. Thousands of people and probably hundreds of tour groups were engaged in the same activities.

From the Imperial Palace – to the Nine Dragon Juniper Tree.

And of course – there are the roof creatures, guarding all the buildings.

There was enough food. No matter than my crew (and everyone else was completely wiped) the first night is the traditional Peiking Duck.

Tomorrow we are up early and off to the great wall

Socks

The Drops Cables -aka Chicken Wire are done. Finished them on the plane today, but didn’t graft the toes till we were at the hotel. Something about needles and scissors.

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These were knit with Vampire, Sweet Sock yarn from Michelle’s Spectrum yarn of the whatever. Executed over 64 stitches with 2,5 mm needles. Pattern altered a bit, you can see the changes I made to both the heel and toe in these photos.

I have cast on the first Solstice Slip (STR SOM from Blue Moon Fiber Arts) and they are going rapidly. They will travel with me tomorrow, along with Loopy and the camera. Have to take some traveling sheep and sock pictures, after all!

I don’t know why I thought I had left enough time this morning. After all, I was not the last to bed and had packed just about everything I needed. I had the short list of things which had to be done this morning. I did not put other people’s crises on my list.

You can just guess what happened.

End result is that I forgot a couple of things that I really needed and was the last one out the door rather than the first.

The S-Bahn was bad enough, jam packed with people. The train from Mannheim to the airport was impossible. We never made it past the entry way, much less sat down any where for the trip.

But we were in plenty of time for our plane, dropping off a couple dozen kids books that I had logged through BookCrossing at the USO and making it with all members of the party alive all the way through to check in. Shall I just say that it is a long flight?

Socks

As I think I mentioned, I became frustrated with knitting the pattern in Florenz because it did not show up against the colour changes in the yarn. I went to stripes for the foot, and finished off the first sock on the flight.

and errand running. The day before a two week vacation doesn’t leave a lot of time for knitting, spinning or reading.

I am taking along a number of books on the computer – mostly from Baen Free Library plus Audio Books by Rex Stout, Rochelle Krich and Sue Grafton. I have more on the computer – but this little toy of an MPT (as it calls itself) player only has a couple of gigs.

Yarn

Yarn selected, I spent a bit of time winding this evening into center pull balls. And selecting patterns to take along. I have a number of interesting ones, but will likely wind up doing a fair amount of mindless socks – easier to do while flying, as I normally do not do well on tracking when there is a lot of action going on.

My suitcase is packed, the kids have finally quieted down. We are planning on a 1000 or so train to Frankfurt where we board an Air China flight for our adventure. I am assuming that I might get to email a couple of times while we are gone and will upload posts as I get a chance. Since I am the custodian of both the laptop and the camera, I plan on making the most of everything.

Mine was sorely lacking this morning. My mouth was killing me enough that I had taken something for pain (this is the woman who did not bother with pain meds post surgery) and I awoke in a puddle of drool with part of my lower face completely numb. Yep, nerve gone out to lunch with this dull throbbing ache under it all.

Dental clinic visit to Heidelberg this time saw me first on the list just after 0700 and finally out of there shortly after 1100. After doing more diagnostic stuff than I have ever seen a dentist try, the good Captain identified what she thought was a root going bad. “How does this cold feel?” doesn’t work if you are numb. My answers did not thrill her, but the resulting excavation turned into the first part of a very much needed root canal.

I still have some numbness (and the anesthetic is long gone) but it is much less than this morning. We will not talk about how this made my lack of singing ability that much worse or affected me trying to lead services tonight. To add insult to injury – the 18 year old is coming down with something so I did not have her to act as Cantor.

All in all – I needed the following link – which are a combination of knitted, crocheted and a bit of plastic canvas. Go look. While you are at it – you can also read about the History of the Naugas.

Renovations

More progress. Most of the tiles are grouted, and the shower base is finished.

Toys

Fun – in the shape of bright coloured ComfortZone plastic needles ordered from Knitting on the Go. These should be almost fool proof for the trip. Not expensive, completely polymer and unlikely to upset any of the securtiy points. Plus, since I ordered different colours for every size – I should not be mixing up needles…..

Arches

After an unproductive morning spent in the dental clinic, the rest of the day could only be up! I still have a sore tooth, but it looks fine on x-ray and exam. I am not keen on having a filling taken out “just to see what is going on” if I can avoid it. Especially since the tooth that is uncomfortable now is not the same as the one bothering me this morning. Go figure, I can’t (or don’t want to).

Renovations

The tub front has been tiled as has all but a couple of small corners and the shower base.

Socks

Finally making progress again on the Drops Chicken Wire – heel flap on the second sock.

Books & Audio Books

With The Garden of Eden by Faye Kellerman, I have finished up all the library audio books. An interesting collection of short stories, they peer more into the minds and thoughts of the characters rather than deal exclusively with who-dun-its. Some are not particularly pleasant, but the human condition is often so by choice. Included at the end are two autobiographical stories. Read by a repertory company, there was only one highly irritating voice in the group.

I am on to HP#7 – (p.230) – and am only a couple of hours into the book. Means I probably have five hours to go, if that. There seem to be a lot of superfluous words in this volume and the constant repetition of the obvious is getting boring. Unlike The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince, I may just finish this one as it is the last.

May I remind you again about BookCrossing? The teens are clearing off their shelves of juvenile paperbacks. About 20 are finding a home at our local military library, filling in holes in series. The rest I registered through BookCrossing and am setting them free both on the library swap shelf with the remainder to be dropped off at the USO on Sunday when we transit the Frankfurt Airport. The lending shelves there never have anything for kids. There are certainly enough kids grumping along after their parents.

And then there are lovely snack food – soybeans steamed fresh in their pods.